RAILA CHANGES TUNE ON BOYCOTTING COMPANIES.

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Thursday, March 23, announced that his coalition had agreed to call off the boycott of The Star after consultation with relevant stakeholders.

According to Odinga, the Coalition will instead file a complaint with the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) to air their grievances about the alleged biases by the Radio Africa Group-owned entity. 

“Following consultations with stakeholders, we have agreed to call off our boycott of The Star Newspaper. We have filed a complaint with the MCK on the paper’s biases,” Odinga announced in a press briefing at Capitol Hill, Nairobi. 

In addition, Raila called out the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) over a letter authored by its Director General, Ezra Chiloba, warning media houses against broadcasting some scenes in the mass action protests. According to the Azimio Chief, the move to limit media coverage in the mass protests was an attack on press freedom and an impediment to the media’s role in enhancing democracy. 

Further, Odinga described the action as an attempt to establish a dictatorial regime, arguing that the move to censure the press was aimed at evading checks and oversight by the public. 

The opposition chief vowed to stand in solidarity with the media houses listed in the letter by Chiloba in fulfilling their mandate of informing the nation. 

“Mr Ezra Chiloba the DG of CAK issued an illegal directive censoring the media and threatening sanctions for their truthful reporting on our demonstrations,” Odinga stated. 

“With this action, Mr Ruto is opening the full dictator’s playbook to kill Kenya’s democracy. We in Azimio cannot allow Ruto to take us to the dark days of yesterday,” he added. 

Further, Odinga announced that Azimio’s mass action protests will resume on Monday, March 27, announcing that the coalition will be holding a “mother of all demonstrations” in Nairobi.  

Odinga’s announcement came a day after his directive urging his supporters to boycott The Star sparked outrage from various quarters.

MCK and the Kenya Editors Guild and the Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) had condemned Odinga’s boycott call as detrimental to independent reporting. 

By Kenyans